Right now, the Portland Trail Blazers hold the professional sports record for the longest consecutive sellout streak. From 1977 to 1995, the Blazers sold out 744 straight home games.

The Boston Red Sox currently hold baseball’s longest consecutive sellout streak. The Red Sox have sold out every home game for the past eight seasons.

However, due to their late season swoon—the team started the month of September leading the American League East and ended the month out of the playoffs—the Red Sox won’t break the Trail Blazer’s sellout record. Their precipitous fall in the standings, which led to the rise of Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees playoff tickets, will be disastrous for Fenway’s box office.

Fortunately for the Red Sox, whose streak is more than 700 games long, they ended the 2011 MLB season on the road. Jim Hotzman, owner of Ace Ticket, the team’s secondary partner, expressed concerned that if the Sox had home games scheduled for the last week of the season the streak would have already been over.

That’s how bad things got in Bean Town.

Fans in Boston won’t tolerate a heart-wrenching collapse especially when they are so used to winning. Furthermore, the Red Sox have the highest priced tickets in MLB. The average price of a non-premium ticket to Fenway Park is $53.38.

It is because of those factors that I predict the Red Sox’s sell out streak will end early next season.

The team’s choke job also devastated their secondary ticket prices. With the Red Sox plummeting in the standings, supporters had no clue if the team was going to the postseason or going fishing. That uncertainly caused ticket prices to drop at a time when the league’s elite teams were experiencing an increase.

At one point in September, the average price of Red Sox tickets on the secondary market was $59. That’s high if you’re the Royals or the Mariners, low if you’re the Red Sox Nation.

One Response to Red Sox’s Late Season Swoon Will End Team’s Sellout Streak

Good stuff, although I’m not quite ready to throw the towel in on the sell out streak. Here are a couple reason why it may hold through the 2012 season:

1) Fenway holds slightly more than 39,000, and more than half of those seats are season ticket holders. There’s also a waiting list of 10k+. So I’m guessing the Sox could open up that waiting list this year to fill more seats.

2) 2004, 2007, multiple playoff appearances, big payroll, I think complacency has set it. But two years with no baseball in October can change that, time heals all wounds.

3) 2012 roster will likely be one of the best in baseball once again, and the fans will come out to support a winning team as they’ve done since 2003.